BNSF

WASHINGTON — On Oct. 14, 1980, the fate of American railroads changed. Congress passed the Staggers Act, legislation that deregulated the industry. But a quarter of a century later, the debate over the law rages on. By 1980, between a fifth and a third of the railroad industry was bankrupt, the byproduct of government regulation. An investor could have made more money putting money into the typical savings account than investing in the railroad industry. Maintenance was, to say the least, sub par and the rate of wrecks was skyrocketing. Despite the grim outlook of the railroad industry, it was

FORT WORTH, Texas – A contribution of $1 million to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina was announced Sept. 2 by BNSF Railway Company, along with an offer to the governors of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to provide railroad transportation in support of hurricane relief and recovery efforts. The contribution by the railway, a subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation, will be made to the American Red Cross via the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Foundation. “All of America grieves at the unfolding tragedy and our Company and employees are anxious to help. We understand there are matters more immediate than

FORT WORTH, Texas – BNSF Railway Company and RailPower Technologies Corp. have announced that BNSF will keep its Green Goat, an environmentally friendly hybrid switch engine, in service for five years in the Los Angeles area and that it is acquiring four cabless Green Goat units for use in Texas. In Los Angeles, the Green Goat(R) joins BNSF’s four Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) locomotives in service elsewhere in the area; the four are the only LNG locomotives in the country. The Green Goat uses a relatively small, clean, efficient, diesel genset in conjunction with over 300 batteries to improve fuel

FORT WORTH, Texas — Nebraska, Kansas & Colorado RailNet (NKCR) will acquire two rail lines consisting of nearly 89 miles of track from The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) in Southwestern Nebraska. The two rail lines being acquired by NKCR are between Oxford and Franklin, Neb. and between Culbertson and Imperial, Neb. NKCR will begin operations on both lines, November 13, 2004. This additional NKCR trackage will serve customers in the towns of Orleans, Alma, Republican, Naponee, Bloomington and Franklin on the Oxford to Franklin line, and in the towns of Beverly, Palisade, Hamlet, Wauneta, Enders and

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company is planning to expand its Tennessee Yard, an intermodal facility in Memphis. The expansion project represents a $40 million capital investment and will create about 150 new jobs over the next few years. “This cooperative agreement with the City of Memphis and Shelby County is a critical step that will enable BNSF to successfully meet our projected growth demands for container traffic,” said Fritz Draper, vice president, Business Development. “As a result, we anticipate doubling our capacity to 400,000 container lifts within the next five years, and we also

FORT WORTH, Texas – The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) announced that, in December 2003, it closed its 2,000th highway-rail grade crossing since the beginning of year 2000. During the four-year period from 2000 to 2003, BNSF closed six percent of its grade crossings, in a cooperative effort with landowners and communities along its route to identify unnecessary or redundant grade crossings. BNSF currently has approximately 30,000 at-grade crossings across its 32,500-mile rail network. BNSF is a subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation. “There’s no question that eliminating an unnecessary or redundant crossing can improve safety,”